Non-Stop

An enjoyable read with a decent narrator. Non-stop is a classic generation ship yarn. We follow members of the Green Tribe who move corridor by corridor nomadically through the hulk of an ancient starship. And like any good generation ship story they progressively realize that their world is a lot more than they had imagined. Adventures and revelations ensue. It's a fairly short book (8 hours) so don't expect a lot of epic surprises or character development, but it makes for a speedy and fun read.

My only gripe was the narrator's "tensely" spoken character dialog. Really grated on my nerves with how often he chose to use it... I could see him sitting in front of the microphone with bulging neck muscles and madly quivering eyes. Other than that a fine performance.

it takes a minute to get an understanding of the situation and things get more explanation the deeper you go. it seems a bit odd at first but it was interesting and kept me wondering what was going on. overall I liked it and I'll try more Aldiss. For a first novel this was very good. early on it's hard to visualize the layout but I think if it were a film they would use large corridors overgrown with plants etc. I don't want to give any more away than that.

Old Fashioned, slow paced, not enjoyable like modern science fiction stories usually are. Not recommended.

Interesting. Thought-provoking. Exciting.

The unique elements of the storyline. This was my first experience with Brian Aldiss. I had lost interest in science fiction over the past few years and also on fiction in general. I read an article on Earth-centric science fiction that opened my eyes to a whole new world of authors that I had heard of but never read before. This was the first story I looked into after reading the article and was completely captivated. I sought out a copy immediately after finishing the audiobook and hopefully will find an original first edition.
The way the story develops is what I enjoyed the most. I particularly enjoyed how you have to understand the environment the characters are in through their eyes and match it with your own interpretation to understand what is going on. Aldiss develops a relationship with the reader.

Coherent and well-spoken narration.

I would if I could.

No others tried.

The Market Trader - He had a good secret.

The

Never Set Your Dazer Past Stun

I read the paperback decades ago and wanted to read it again. Only the audible version was available. My Great Good Luck! Very nice to listen before sleep time.

I hesitate to call this good old fashioned Science Fiction, because that would suggest that since it was written in 1958, that it is dated. I believe this could easily have been written today. The only difference is that instead of 8 hours long it would be 28 hours long and have two sequels.

There is quite a lot in this 8 hours. You pretty much know from the start that this is a generational ship and the population has gone back to the dark ages. What you don't know is several other mysteries that get discovered at the end of the book.

Our main character's name is Complain and even though his people are described as primitives, there language is more of medieval England. Here is a typical exchange: "Keep a civil turn of phrase, Complain: your own carcass isn't worth a crust to me."

After Complain loses his woman, he joins a group of rebels, led by a priest named Marapper, on a quest. Marapper heads a religion that worships psychology. Jung and Freud are part of the trinity. Marapper's character of selfishness is down right roll on the ground funny at times. On their quest they run into Giants, Mutants, Forwards, Outsiders, Intelligent rats, telepathic rabbits and Moth Scouts.

Towards the end there are a couple of chapters of fighting and burning of the ship that seems to go on far too long and there is a scene where discovering how to open trap doors comes a little to easy for me, but this is minor. The ending is a surprise and very inventive.

This is one of the very few books were I gave the overall rating more stars then the story. In most cases I feel the story should be more important, but the narrator is so good, I believe he increases the value of the book.